BrissyBrickGuy

Thanks spitfire. That's the plan :-). But i don't have much with holes right now to accommodate the motors and extra wheels. I am actually off on a 2 week uni field trip Monday so will start looking around and planning it a bit better when I get back.

Yeah fair enough. My last post did get a little defensive...... When I get my hands on some more suitable base plates I will see what I can do about making it a little longer. Which will give me even more room to tuck the side panels in. Will post if it works out. Cheers

Well an encouraging experience this has been.... I was exited to share this as I loved how it looked but the fact I am really happy with it doesn't seem to matter to anyone. This is fine but again, It wasn't meant to be a months long project to look exactly like and to scale of the real train. Just a few hours basic modding to make it look a little nicer on the tracks and appear capable of pulling the carriages. I thought I would share it as sometimes the complexity of models on this site can be overwhelming and I thought this looked quite good for some simple work. Maybe me using the word 'scale' is what has you all so worked up and eager to mention what is wrong with it. In fact I was referring to the size of the carriages compared to the train and the unrealistic look of the train pulling them, and the width of the track. I wasn't really trying to replicate the original "to scale" but rather just to stay as true to it as I could with what I wanted to do. Sure it may look to wide to you but to me it looks way better than it did running around the tracks and I like the more tank like look plus I lack the skills, parts and time to do much more. I know.... Like i said they are very very narrow. Not sure ill be posting again but hey at least I got an A for effort.... Seems to be a bit "what i say or think is the only right way to do it" around here but I have extended it another 2 studs to attempt to show what I was trying to explain. I'm sure we can all agree the original model looked too narrow especially when turning. Walkways are obviously important to you all than to me but I do like the width of it all how it has ended up over the tracks and am happy to sacrifice the addition of side walkways to get it. It just needs to be a little longer. I will consider attempting to add a non powered 3rd set of wheels to the front and back eventually which will give me room for more length. But as you all know that will come with a ton of other time consuming challenges so this is it for now.However as I mentioned I will probably try and tuck the side panels in closer to the batteries to at least make a slight side walkway too. Anyways, there is more than one way to mod something, and one persons goal or vision doesn't have to be the same as another's is all i'm trying to say.

Thanks for the input guys. It only a mod of the original design to look better on the tracks. Not necessarily more like the original train. But i did try to keep true to it as much as possible and used these 2 photos. One & two I quite like the width but think the length is whats holding it back. I cant see any significant side walkways in any images of the train, they are very very narrow. And I moved everything out from 6-8 wide so the walkways on the sides are exactly the same as they are in the original Lego model...... I think they are represented just fine with the space between the rail and train. I refuse to pay $100AUD+ charger for a lego rechargeable battery box so use my own 4 and 8 cell packs. I wanted 8 cells to fit in this so I can just keep adding carriages so I dont have much room to make the engine compartment narrower now either. Although I say all that, I do get what you guys mean. Possibly moving the side panels that clip on and cover the engine compartment in one plate so they are level with the nose and indent just after the cabin will tie the whole thing together a little more. This is probably possible and I will look into it next time I mess with it. As it is the nose might even be better at 5 wide and I played with black studded bricks and blue tiles to try that when I built it but it didn't look so good with the brick from the cab that comes along the side of it. Working with the limited range of Maersk blue parts didn't leave me many options to get around that.... I wasn't really setting out to make the train more realistic..... Just to look better on the track and to stay true to the original and to the Lego design as much as possible at the same time. I think I achieved this. The main problem was the engine looked to small to be able to pull the five carriages. Now it looks much better going around the track. There are still more than a few bits i would like to do better but this will now be all put away for another indefinite time period so that's for next time. Again I think length is the main issues. If the engine compartment was a few studs longer it would look a little less stocky overall. Having room for large platforms would be even better! As for container wagon greebling, I kind of attempted that under the bottom tile layer. I have made some Maersk stickers to go on the wagons and need all 3 tile rows so not much room for more mods there either.

This all started with the carriages which I didn't really like the look of compared to the quality of the train and wanted to make look more like this. I built 5 like in the pictures below and was happy with how they looked but being wider the train looked even more out of scale. So I looked around to see what others had done and actually found and joined this site after seeing Ralphs awesome MOC some time ago. I lack the skill for something like that but I finally put 8 hours into messing with the already built original model the other night and here is what i ended up with. The train base is now 2 studs longer and the trucks one stud longer each. This only really my second mod attempt since getting back into Lego (other mod), and although I had to sacrifice most of the platforms at the front and back to have room to add length I am pretty happy with the overall result. Hope you like All up there is 2 sets, an extra carriage, numerous extra trucks, a few extra containers and a few extra parts. I will try and post an image of the train with the 5 carriages next time I set a track up.

They will go on too, but message me though there if you want to talk. This wasn't meant to be a promotion thread. I just wanted to share it before I sold it :-) I will say though, I don't think its 'modular' in the sense you can lift off each level. I did want to do that but couldn't really get around the curved windows smoothly. Tiling the whole floor may have been a good plan to get around it, but didn't seem worth the cost and 'might work' effort when I never open them up after building anyway.

lol ummm is all on external auction site that i'm not allowed to post here and it looks like I don't have enough posts to sell here yet, or possibly message other members? All the buildings will be listed but modulars already are. *Edited to make more mod friendly (ty lightningtiger). If this is still to much please let me know and I will happily delete. Soon I will have enough posts to sell here i'm sure :-)

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments. :-) Almost helping to convince me to keep it. I have a 5mth old so a future city will be off the cards for a while, but I plan to collect some sets for when the time comes for us to build a city together. Def not selling the Maersk Train. :-) I figured i didn't have the parts or skill for detail like on modulars, so if I made it square it might look basic and boring next to them. So went a little nuts with balconies etc. I also played around with an extra support for the top level where it comes out at the front, but it blocked off a lot, and looked better open. Also tried some inverted slopes to make it look more supported but the didn't look so good with the blue outside tiles going over them. I had thought about buying another set but in end the design really just involved ordering white bricks and panels and adding on until I ran out. When I finally found someone selling new light blue windows and doors that would ship to Australia so bought him out and again added on until I ran ran out. Another small order or two to of the blue tiles and stud bricks and plates bricks etc needed to tidy and strengthen it all up and that's what I ended up with. Will be looking forward to the next one. :-)

Thanks Melbs, :-) There are a fair few extra parts in there, I would guess somewhere near double the original set... I only purchased one of 7498 but it may have been more cost effective to have gotten two in the end. To give you some idea.... the original design includes 10 blue windows and 1 blue door. This ended up with 25 windows in total and 5 doors installed including; 18 blue windows, 5 clear cross bass windows (at back), 2 clear window panels (at back), 4 blue doors, and one clear door (garage entry on bottom rear left side). And you are very welcome to use any ideas you like :-)

Hey guys, Recently I rediscovered how awesome Lego is after a 15 year break and have put together a small town. We are actually about to move so i'm selling most of it off but wanted to show you all my first ever (adult) mod of a building before I do. I found it difficult to source parts in Australia which made it a slow process, but I was pretty happy with the end result and how it looked next to the town hall. Anyway, here it is :-)